There are a number of software packages to help writers. We will be reviewing these and would welcome any contributions from users. For those interested in scriptwriting or poetry, there will be separate listings. Read more

Muse Names

Muse Creations

$79

"What’s in a name?"

Anyone who has spent, I nearly said wasted, weeks of their life struggling to name an unborn infant knows how time-consuming it can be. Help is at hand, especially if your ‘baby’ happens to be a story set in ancient Abyssinia, Shakespearian England or modern suburbia. Muse Names has the answer.

The package claims to have 40,000 names classified by country or cultural origin. What turns a long list into a powerful tool for writers is the way it selects a name to match a key word. If you want a name that is warm there are hundreds. To name an aggressive character you might find your choice constrained to Gaelic or Irish. If you want a brave Ukrainian character just ask and you have four to choose from.

You can search one or all of the data sets by name or meaning. You can choose the gender and a few other search parameters. If you conceived a character to be known by their nickname, you can type it in, set the gender, select the ‘contains’ button and see if the name fits any of the known names. This Muse is wonderful food for your creativity.

With each name you get an etymological brief and some numerology, plus New Age insight. The ‘Expression number’ gives ‘the outward expression of an individual's personality’ while the ‘Soul urge’ attempts to predict the nature of the character. If you want to explore this concept further, try:

The help system was informative and worth exploring as it explains the naming conventions of other cultures. On the negative side, Africa might be too broad a category, but the names are localised in the database and a database of previous bibliographic appearances would have been informative, but this is nit-picking. The price tag of $79 also seemed a bit steep for a simple tool but there is no competition.

It is a pleasure to find a small package that behaves itself. It installed and, after the review, uninstalled itself cleanly. The commands were all intuitive and the response was quick, even on the clunky machine reserved for reviews. As a bit of a nerd myself, I detected the welcome signs of quality software supporting this product.

Writing reviews is not my favourite occupation. My views on than half of the products I have reviewed are unprintable they and end up in the bin. But this was fun. Fun to install, fun to use and fun to discover those new slants on familiar and new names. Don’t just download ‘Muse Names’, cough up the $79fee for your own copy.

Not all software is aimed at the creative end. If you want to make a living you need to keep track of your work and who it is going to. From commissioning to paycheck will probably be months, so some tools to help you keep track might be useful.

The Working Writer helps manage the business side of being a freelance writer. Read more

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